1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device and a video conference system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable electronic device and a video conference system where the image-capturing module of the portable electronic device is used to perform the video conference.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a cell phone is mainly used for communication. A PDA (personal digital assistant) is a device for storing and processing personal data. With the advance of digital image technology, camera modules have been integrated into some modern cell phones and PDAs. Pictures taken by such a camera module can be sent to a remote participant.
Some cell phones, such as some wireless LAN, CDMA, or WCDMA, have a high transmission speed. These cell phones can hold video conferences when communicating with another participant. However, the screens on cell phones are usually very small. If the video conference has many participants, the participants are hard to see since the image resolution is not good. A conventional video conference conducted by cell phones also lacks sufficient resolution for displaying documents, data papers, pictures, or products during the video conference. Besides, holding a video conference over a wireless connection is costly.
With the development of network technology, information exchange through the Internet has become very common and convenient. The video and audio data compression technology is also developing fast. Therefore, it is possible to transfer video and audio data via the Internet if the bandwidth is high enough.
Conventionally, a camera and a microphone have to be added to a computer in order to perform a video conference. The connection is established through the Internet and a real-time video and audio communications are made.
However, in a video conference held in this manner, the computer and the cell phone (or PDA) cannot be linked efficiently, or a link may not even exist in the video conference. If a cell phone already has a video conference function, buying another video conference system on a computer is wasteful.